We celebrated Heritage Day at the twins' school this week. Of course, I had to bring an Australian dish to share. It's a little difficult to re-heat meat pies and sausage rolls at school so I decided to go with one of my favorite bakery treats, lamingtons.

Note: Some people like lamingtons with jam, and some without, it's really up to you whether you include it or not. Personally, I love lamingtons with jam.

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose whole wheat white flour

1 cup sugar

2 tsp baking powder

3 eggs

1 cup milk

2 tsp vanilla essence

1/2 cup butter

pinch of salt

Icing:

4 cups confectioner's sugar

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 tbs butter (melted)

1/2 cup milk

1 pkg flaked coconut

raspberry jam (optional)

Turn the oven onto 375F. Grease and flour a 13×9 cake pan.

Sift the flour, salt, and baking powder in a bowl and set aside. In a large bowl cream the sugar and butter. Add in the vanilla, then add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Next alternate between adding a little of the flour mixture and a little of the milk, blending constantly until combined.

Pour the cake mixture into the pan and bake for 27 minutes (time may vary a little depending on your oven).

Once baked and cooled, pop your cake into the freezer while you prepare the icing.

Tip: Cutting and icing cakes work so much better if the cake is at least partially frozen because you don't get as many crumbs everywhere.

Icing: Pour the package of coconut into a large bowl and set aside. In a second large microwavable bowl combine the confectioner's sugar, milk, and melted butter. Microwave on high for 30-second intervals, stirring in-between until combined. You don't want really thick icing that you would normally use to decorate a cake, it needs to be a little runny, but thick enough that it will stick to the cake.

Prepare: Remove your cake from the freezer and turn out onto a cutting board. Cut off the edges of the cake and then slice off the top so that the top of the cake is flat. Spread a thin layer of jam across the top. Cut the cake into equal-sized squares, they will be between 1 1/2-2 inches wide. Stick 2 pieces of cake together with the jam in the center. Using a couple of forks dunk the cake into the chocolate letting all of the excess drips off, then cover with coconut. Place your lamington onto a cookie tray with parchment paper, repeat until you have made all of your lamingtons, then refrigerate to set the chocolate.

Note: This recipe made 9 lamingtons. I doubled the ingredients to supply enough for the school event.

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This is the first time I have encountered lamington’s topped with raspberry. Usually it’s just coated confectioner’s sugar and dessicated coconut. I’d really like to try this recipe myself. Indeed lamingtons are easy to bake.